Are Thrill Rides Too Thrilling?

By Laura Locke, Barbara Liston

Roller coasters are supposed to scare you, make you scream and maybe leave your stomach 300 ft. up in the air. But when you hop onto one, you should feel as safe as if you were climbing onto a city bus. That is the import of a decision last week by California's Supreme Court, which toughened safety standards for amusement-park rides by ruling that they should abide by the same standard applied to modes of transportation like buses and airplanes.

For the amusement- park industry, the ruling is another jolt in what has been a bumpy start to the summer scream season. In April a teenager and her 11-year-old cousin were stranded for more than an hour atop the new Insanity ride above the Las Vegas Strip when high winds caused the ride to shut down. At Disney World in Orlando, Fla., a 4-year-old boy died after passing out on Mission: Space, a turbulent motion-simulator ride. (An investigation is under way; no safety problems have been found.) And the new Kingda Ka roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., billed as the fastest yet, was shut down last week after a malfunction.

The increase in twisty, high-tech rides and a tougher safety standard cued by the California court could make for a rough summer. "If a bus took you down hills at 60 m.p.h. and made you scream, that would be a problem," says John Robinson of California's amusement-park association. "If a roller coaster doesn't do that, then nobody will ride it." --By Laura Locke and Barbara Liston